Maritime industry leaders meeting in Shanghai called for International Maritime Organization regulation to help accelerate shipping’s energy transition, according to a Global Maritime Forum account published by Hellenic Shipping News. The two-day Annual Summit 2026 brought together shipowners, charterers, financiers, policymakers and cargo owners as the IMO’s Net-Zero Framework approaches what the organisers described as a pivotal point in December.
IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez told participants that a worldwide regulatory framework was important to encourage the investment required to meet the organisation’s net-zero objectives. He reaffirmed the sector’s 2050 decarbonisation goal, while stressing that action outside the IMO was also necessary: countries needed to invest in infrastructure and energy companies in new fuels. Greater diversification would strengthen resilience, he said.
The discussions extended beyond emissions to energy security, maritime governance, freedom of navigation and supply-chain disruption. Global Maritime Forum chief executive Johannah Christensen described the difficulty of maintaining trade in essential goods during periods of upheaval without endangering lives. The organisers presented the gathering as an opportunity for participants across the maritime value chain to examine competing priorities and discuss responses to those pressures.
The summit, the first held in mainland China, also hosted the launch of a Global Maritime Forum report on green shipping corridors. The report assessed China against four elements it considers necessary to establish such corridors and identified strategic advantages in three. That assessment was the Forum’s own finding; the account published by Hellenic Shipping News did not detail the individual elements or the advantages identified.
Separately, the All Aboard Alliance appointed Swire Shipping chief executive Jeremy Sutton as co-chair alongside Meei Wong, chief executive of Circle Digital Ventures. Its work on global standards covering ten aspects of life at sea featured in summit discussions, with participants linking its importance to concerns over seafarer safety in the Strait of Hormuz. The Forum also announced that its 2027 summit would take place in Copenhagen on 28–29 September, marking the organisation’s tenth anniversary.